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Batman Vol 1 454
The second step was to bathe in human blood. He lured Batman to the blood transfusion center and blew it up. The third step was a "Danse Macabre," also known as a dance with the dead. He lured Batman to a cemetery, and had robots made of the dead attack him to simulate a dance. The fourth step was to slay a wild dog with a silver dagger. He attacked Batman with pitbull terriers, and had someone hand Batman a silver dagger at the last second. The fifth one was the most difficult, slitting the throat of an unbaptized child. He knew Batman would never do this willingly, so he forced Batman to give a baby a tracheotomy. The sixth one was a sabbath dance, acrobatics before the devil, represented by a horned goat. He had Chuck use the flamethrower to force Batman into doing acrobatics. Batman tells the Riddler that he has never been this barbaric, and asks if something has happened to him. The Riddler explains that this is only his true potential awakening as he matures into a better criminal. Batman tells the Riddler that he has always thought they respected each other, and he explains that he has felt he was being watched the entire night. The Riddler ignores Batman and prepares to plunge the dagger into his heart. Suddenly the daemon Barbathos speaks to both of them. Barbathos taunts the Riddler, calling him easy to manipulate. The Riddler is terrified, and he flees when the building begins rattling. The Riddler realizes he cannot complete the ritual, so he decides to kill Batman by sealing the underground temple again. Batman gets out of his ropes in seconds. talks to Barbathos.]] Barbathos shows Batman a vision of the occult ritual that summoned him in 1765. The occultists flee, and Batman is left alone with their victim. Barbathos reveals that no monster attacked the occultists, as they had thought. It was simply a regular bat, and they imagined it was a monster because they were scared. Barbathos has been trapped in this temple for 200 years, and he speaks to Batman through the skeleton of that bat. He is trapped, but his spirit has become an intrinsic part of Gotham. Barbathos knew that someday a bat would solve a trail of riddles and release him. The city was designed to create Batman so that he could one day free Barbathos. Batman watches the young woman claw at the hatch, and Barbathos commands him to free her. He tells Batman that they are brother and sister of the bat. Batman tries to help the young woman, who tells him her name is Dominique. They realize the Riddler has set fire to the building using the flamethrower. The hatch opens, and they are rescued by Alfred. Batman carries Dominique up the ladder and out of the burning building in his cloak. When they get outside, she has turned back into the skeleton she was when he found her. The building burns down, and Batman remarks that they have not seen the last of the Riddler. Batman decides to bury Dominique inside the tomb where his parents are also buried. Batman wonders about his true origins, whether it was accident or design that created him. He decides that it does not matter. Even if he was created by the will of a daemon, the things that made him were still real. He is who he is. It makes no difference if a demon was involved. The baby survived, and Batman decides to visit him the next day. He walks back to his house, sees a bat flying overhead, and decides to follow it. | Appearing1 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * * Antagonists: * * Other Characters: * Chuck * * Dominique * Jacob Stockman * Michael * Locations: * ** Cooney's Circus Land ** Stockman's Square ** *** Items: * * Confessions of Jacob Stockman (book) Vehicles: * | Notes = * This issue is reprinted in the trade paperback and in . | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = }}